Supporting the Partial Authorization Mandate
eCommerce merchants are now only required to provide support for authorization reversals. However, Authorize.net recommends that e-commerce merchants support all three requirements: authorization reversals, partial authorizations, and balance responses. Retail and mobile merchants must still support all three requirements.
Your Merchant Service Provider (MSP) is responsible for determining if these requirements apply to your business. Please contact them for assistance in determining if your company is exempt.
The steps you need to take to support these requirements depend on how you connect to the payment gateway. For example, if you connect using a shopping cart, point-of-sale device, or other solution, you should contact your solution provider to confirm their support for these requirements. If you connect using a direct integration, contact your Web developer for assistance.
Are the requirements global or U.S. only?
Currently, the requirements are mandated for U.S. merchants only.
Do issuers support these new compliance requirements?
Yes. As of November 1, 2008, all Debit MasterCard and Maestro debit and prepaid issuers are required to process and respond appropriately to merchants that support partial approvals and real-time reversals (full and partial). In addition, prepaid Debit MasterCard and Maestro issuers must support the account balance response.
Are there any transaction types that are exempt?
Yes. The following transaction types are exempt: batch uploads, mail order/telephone order (MOTO), and recurring payment transactions. Furthermore, e-commerce merchants are only required to support authorization reversals.
How Do the Partial Authorization Mandate Requirements Impact Split Shipments?
Merchants should be aware of the impact of the requirements on split shipments. A capture submitted for a partial shipment will be matched against the original authorization and release the hold of funds in the cardholder's account. If the merchant expects to make a second shipment of goods, a new authorization should be taken against the card in the amount of the second shipment and captured when the second shipment is sent.
What If a Merchant Does Not Comply with the Partial Authorization Mandate? Is There a Non-Compliance Fee?
Merchants who are obligated to support the requirements must make the appropriate changes to support these transactions. The payment card brands will be performing frequent compliance monitoring of these rules changes and will follow through with the appropriate parties if merchants are found to be non-compliant. The amount of fees assessed will be as per the MasterCard and Discover association non-compliance fines described in their operating regulations and rules. For more information, please contact your Merchant Service Provider (MSP).
As a reminder, your MSP is ultimately responsible for determining if the requirements apply to your business, so please contact them for assistance in determining if your company is exempt.
Balance Response Questions
Do merchants need to display the remaining prepaid account balance on both the receipt and the customer-facing POS device or webpage? No. You can choose to display the balance, print the balance, or both.
Will the balance be displayed or printed for all debit and prepaid products? No. For security reasons, balances will only be returned by the issuer for prepaid cards, and even then, only for select cards. If the "available balance" is present in the record, you must display or print it for the customer, regardless of the dollar amount.
Impact of Partial Authorization Mandate on Payment Card Types
The Partial Authorization Mandate compliance requirements apply to regular debit, prepaid, and gift cards for the following payment card types:
- MasterCard
- Discover
- Diners Club
- JCB
Although not mandated, Authorize.net also supports these requirements for additional payment card types:
- Visa
- American Express (Partial approvals & balance responses only; AMEX does not allow authorization reversals)
MasterCard and Discover Requirements
MasterCard and Discover require that merchants support the following three transaction types for debit, prepaid, and gift cards:
Partial Approval
If a cardholder doesn't have sufficient balance on their debit, prepaid, or gift card, merchants must partially approve the transaction. The merchant must also allow cardholders to pay the remaining balance with another form of payment, known as a split-tender purchase transaction.
Benefit: Prior to implementing partial approvals, a card with an insufficient balance would be declined. By supporting partial approvals, you can turn a potential decline into a completed sale by asking for an additional form of payment.
Authorization Reversal
If a cardholder decides not to proceed with a transaction that has not yet settled, merchants must reverse the authorized transaction. This frees up the available balance on the customer's card when transactions are not completed.
Benefit: By supporting authorization reversals, you restore the cardholders' available balance, enabling them to potentially make a purchase at your store.
This requirement is especially important when processing partial authorizations. If a card is partially authorized for an amount, but the customer decides to cancel the transaction, the customer's available balance would be reduced until that authorization naturally expired if the authorization reversal wasn't required.
Balance Response
Merchants must display or print the prepaid card balance on the customer receipt or on a customer-facing terminal/POS device/webpage, or both. However, prepaid card balance information is only available for some cards.
Benefit: By supporting balance responses and making the information available to the consumer, the consumer is better informed about their available balance on their prepaid cards, and could make additional purchases based on that balance.
Integration and API Changes/Updates
For details on partial authorization support for Advance Integration Method (AIM) or Server Integration Method (SIM), please see:API Upgrade Guide.
Additionally, Relay Response and Silent Post transaction responses include the card type and last four digits of the credit card number, regardless of whether the original transaction was enabled for partial authorizations. This information will be included in the following fields:
| Field Name | Value | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| x_account_number | Last 4 digits of the card provided | Alphanumeric (XXXX6835) | This is a new field that is returned with all transactions. |
| x_card_type | Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, EnRoute, JCB | Text | This is a new field that is returned with all transactions. |
Simple Checkout Updates
If you are using Simple Checkout, log into the Merchant Interface, click Settings under Account in the main menu, then click Partial Authorization. From that page, check the box next to Allow Partial Payments and click Submit. Click OK to confirm and you're ready to process partial authorization transactions from your Simple Checkout buttons.
Other Service Changes/Updates
Virtual Point of Sale (VPOS)
VPOS has been updated to support the new requirements, but is still dependent on processor support.
Value-Adding Services
If you are using the Customer Information Manager (CIM), you can submit partial authorization transactions using the CIM API only. The updated CIM API guides can be found on API CIM page.
If you are using the Daily Velocity Filter, available with all payment gateway accounts, or are using the Advanced Fraud Detection Suite (AFDS) and are using the Hourly Velocity Filter, only the first transaction in a series of partial authorization transactions will be screened by the filter. All subsequent transactions in an order will not be counted toward your daily or hourly limit.
The new requirements do not affect Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) or batch upload transactions, or any transaction run through the Virtual Terminal.
